08/12/2026
Do you have photos of the Paralympic torch or any of the Paralympic events in Georgia that you would like to share for the archives? What a time it was! Few people carried cell phones or digital cameras as we do now. Because of this there are fewer photos of the Paralympic Torch making its way across Georgia. You can post them here or send them in a DM.
From Doug Hatch, athlete, advocate and historian.
The 1996 Paralympic Torch arrived in Athens 30 years ago on August 12 on its way to Atlanta to light the cauldron opening the tenth Paralympics Games. Almost 1,800 people gathered at the Classic Center welcoming its arrival. The relay was significantly delayed when the torch accidently fell into the water while crossing Lake Hartwell. An emergency flame was available, another torch was lit, and the relay continued.
People, many with families, patiently waited almost two hours for the torch to arrive. The Torch spent the night in Athens and the
next morning continued its journey to Atlanta.
The day after the close of the Atlanta Olympic games, the Paralympic flame was lit by the Eternal Flame marking the grave of Martin Luther King, Jr. at the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, acknowledging the close kinship between the civil rights and disability rights movements. The Paralympic Flame was then flown from Atlanta to Washington, D. C. and lit the first Paralympic Torch beginning the first Paralympic Torch Relay held in the United States and, at that time, the longest - covering 1,000 miles. The flame passed torch to torch, “people power only”, through the hands of 1,001 torchbearers intentionally included individuals with and without disabilities, runners, walkers, wheelchair
users, people on horseback, water skies, bicycles, and even an adapted lawnmower. Forty-nine residents of Athens carried the Torch during the relay.
